Rocky Knoll at East Hays

7th September 2011

Post

Brunelles in Boise Centennial: September 7, 1911 Alvan Brunelle visits Harry Orchard in Prison

Alvan Brunelle turned 24 on September 2, 1911 and within a few days the Wallace, Idaho native made his first trip to Boise.

After riding the rails from Spokane to Idaho’s capital city, met up with friends, rode the trolley to the end of Warm Springs Avenue, and swam at the Natatorium.  Then Alvan visited Harry Orchard in prison.  And Orchard gave him a pair of cufflinks.

That’s Alvan’s story. Did this really happen? After some time investigating his story about his Boise trip and the cufflinks he received from Harry Orchard, I found a key piece of evidence backing up his story.

An inquiry and visit to the State of Idaho Archives provides the proof that Alvan Brunelle visited the Idaho State Penitentiary on September 7, 1911.  All visitors to the prison were required to sign in, and even to pay a $0.25 fee.  On page 205 of one of the bound volumes of the prison visitor log I found the following signature:

Alvan listed his home as Murray, Idaho, near the site of the Golden Winnie Mine.  The family owned a home on King Street in Wallace, twenty miles to the south, but it was probably rented to others as it was during the 1910 fires.  And one surprise is his signature dropped the “e” from the end of his name.

The prison sign-in book does not indicate who he visited.  Orchard is of course the logical person because they were acquaintances when Orchard lived in Shoshone County in the late 1890s.

And what about the cufflinks?  There is no direct way to prove where they came from. But Stewart Holbrook’s book The Rocky Mountain Revolution adds credence to Alvan’s story as it points out that Orchard had the means and abilities to make cufflinks:

“He was set to work in the shoeshop and here he displayed such ability and ambition that he was put in charge and the department enlarged … Orchard set his talented fingers, so used to delicate work in other fields, to the making of fancy bridles … Orchard began making fine hair and clothes brushes.  This craft lasted him for several years … “

[above: 2008 photo of the cufflinks given to Alvan Brunelle from Harry Orchard]

I uncovered little else about Brunelle’s visit to Boise.  The local newspaper from 1911 is available on line through the Boise Public Library and the Boise weather on Thursday Sept. 7, 1911 was a relatively cool 69 degrees, with a trace of rain.  Here’s the record from Sept. 8th:

The headlines on the front page of the Idaho Statesman both on the 7th and 8th was the vote in Canyon County to remain dry, and that forces of prohibition were setting their sights on Ada County.  That social experiment was still about ten years before it’s peak when the US Constitution was amended to prohibit sale of alcohol.  But in 1907 the local paper included an ad from one of the more enduring brands of beer that people today will recognize (and with a rather interesting marketing angle).

This photograph from Tablerock, taken in 1910 or 1911 is very interesting, especially the large 11MB version, because it shows the Idaho State Penitentiary in below the bluff in the bottom right hand, the road leading to the prison and where it connects to Warm Springs Avenue, and the Natatorium on the south and west of the junction.  

Further south, the Boise River flowed freely and carved a large swath through the valley.

Due west of the Prison open land stretches out, an area now filled with houses and large trees.  The Bacon Drive subdivision came mid century.  A little further distant is the outline of the East End neighborhood, with the street grid just starting.  When Alvan walked to the state prison from the Natatorium he would have had an unobstructed view of the Boise foothills, and the ridge line west of the prison.  With its prominent feature we know as Castle Rock the top of the ridge then gradually descends moving to the west.  

Yet back in 1911 one prominent feature would have stood out and it may have caught his eyes:  a large rock outcrop just to the south of where the ridgeline meets the valley.  That outcrop is what my next door neighbor calls Timberoc Knoll - the eastern half of which I own - and it’s where the name comes for this tumblr page and where I have lived since 2000 (and since 1989 counting the house across the street that I can hit with a rock throw).  Perhaps Alvan briefly gazed upon the land where one of his grandsons would live for more than 20 years, some seven decades after this visit to Mr. Orchard’s place of incarceration, one hundred years ago.